[users] Installing criawips via rpm

From:

Michael A. Peters

Subject:

[users] Installing criawips via rpm

Date:

Tue, 04 Oct 2005 23:58:25 -0700

I use LaTeX with the prosper package for my slide needs, but I'm
interested in Criawips because I want Linux/Gnome to be a viable
desktop, and I don't like OpenOffice.org - and general user isn't going
to use learn LaTeX to make their slide presentations ...
Maybe some day in the future, tex4ht will be able to take a prosper (or
other) LaTeX slide project and spit out Criawips compliant XML for fine
tuning the presentation in Criawips. That would be nice.
I'm also a contributor to Fedora Extras, I like building stuff with rpm.
That way I don't need pesky things like a C compiler and space eating
devel headers on my laptop.
I saw in the archives from August instructions on building Criawips in
Fedora Core 4 - I decided I could contribute by offering rpm based
instructions.
-=-
Building Criawips via RPM in Fedora Core 4
** Warning - Requires upgrading a core package
These spec files were successfully built in mock, so the BuildRequires
should be sane, and they build as non root user (RPM's should never be
built as root).
1) libgfs
Get the src.rpm from Fedora Rawhide. Rebuild it in FC-4.
That avoids any linking against libraries newer than you have.
Upgrade your existing libgsf with the result and install the
libgsf-devel package. When FC-5 ships, of course, you won't need the
libgsf from Rawhide any more.
2) goffice
Use the spec file attached.
Get the src from the directory in the URL field.
Be sure to install the devel package.
Cairo support is disabled - there are cairo src.RPM's in Rawhide, so you
might be able to build it with cairo support if you want to. When FC-5
ships, goffice should be built against cairo.
3) Criawips
Use the spec file attached.
Note that there are a couple of Fedora specific changes -
a) Fedora doesn't like non core packages to use X-Redhat-Base but
prefers that they use X-Fedora instead (in the desktop file). Other
distros will need to comment out my sed, as they may need X-Redhat-Base
for the menu to properly work. There's nothing wrong with using
X-Redhat-Base in Fedora, but I'm just trying to think ahead toward
future inclusion of this package in Extras when Criawips is ready and
that time comes.
b) I use desktop-file-install and install the vendor as gnome. Using
desktop-file-install in the spec file ensures that the desktop file is
sane, it gives a bad exit status if the desktop file is not sane,
causing the rpm to fail. So using desktop-file-install is a good way for
a packager to make sure the desktop file meets the specification. I
don't know how other distributions do things, but Fedora prefers that
any package not installed as part of the core distribution have a vendor
tag pre-pended to the the desktop filename. Most apps in Extras use
Fedora - but Fedora should only be used for apps from Fedora Extras.
AbiWord and Gnumeric both use gnome for the vendor (even though they
could use Fedora since they are in Extras) - so I figured specifying
gnome as the vendor was a consistent choice since this project will
hopefully join AbiWord and Gnumeric as part of Gnome Office.
-=-
These spec files are Fedora specific but should be easily adaptable to
just about any distribution out there. I hope ...
When Criawips is ready for general public use, however long that may
take, I hope to help get the package into Fedora Extras proper either by
submitting a package myself, or by reviewing the package someone else
submits. As such, any suggestions to either of these two spec files
would be greatly appreciated. I really don't like OpenOffice.org, a good
gnome office alternative for presentation content creation would really
be beneficial.
-=-
It currently is not very functional. I do not know if that is Fedora or
criawips in general.
I was able to view an existing criawips presentation quite nicely. I was
unable to do anything to create a new one, however - though after
viewing an existing presentation, I was able to type (though what I
typed did not display)
I understand it is still quite young.